Elizabethan England: Relations With Spain

Question 1

what were Elizabeth’s main foreign policies

Answer 1

• developing and improving trade to benefit the English economy
• protecting English borders
• protecting the English throne
• avoiding war (could cost a lot of money and lead to loss of throne if English rebels support the enemy)

Question 2

What was Spain provided with because it conquered Mexico and Peru in the early 1500s?

Answer 2

vast amounts of :
• crops
• silver
• gold

This also gave Spain control over trade in sugar cane and tobacco

Question 3

problems English merchants faced

Answer 3

• Spain controlled the Netherlands which were the main route into European markets. Antwerp was very important to English trade
• Spain controlled much of the New world where there were valuable trading opportunities
• Spain control of the New world denied English traders profit-making opportunities because all trade there had to be licensed by the Spanish government.

Question 4

what did English merchants do to tackle the problem of trading

Answer 4

they traded illegally without licenses and some attacked Spanish ports and shipping.

Question 5

what was the consequence of Spain controlling the Netherlands and the Scheldt and Rhine estuaries?

Answer 5

It closed off one of the principal trade routes used by English traders = this reduced income and profits for English merchants

Question 6

What’s the deal with Privateering
• who were they financed by
• what did they do
• sea beggars

Answer 6

• English merchants, financed by private investors, including Elizabeth herself, raided Spanish colonies as well as ships voyaging to and from the New world
• Elizabeth also encouraged Dutch rebels known as the Sea Beggars, to attack Spanish ships sailing between Spain and the Netherlands

Question 7

Francis Drake significance on privateering

Answer 7

• 1572: in one raid alone captured £40,000 in Spanish silver
• A second expedition between 1577 and 1580, involving Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe, resulted in the capture of further £400,000 of silver and gold

Question 8

What was the effects of privateering on Spain?

Answer 8

By 1580, loss of silver meant that the Spanish government in the Netherlands was bankrupt and could not afford to pay its soldiers

Question 9

Explain the reasons for deteriorating relations between England and Spain due to privateering?

Answer 9

• Elizabeth, by knighting Drake demonstrated her defiance of hostility towards Spain’s commercial interests in Europe and the New world

• Elizabeth’s actions showed her support of the financial losses suffered by the Spanish government as a result of English privateering

• For Phillip II, Drake and other privateers were seen as a pirate who needed to be removed by war if necessary.

Question 10

Under Mary Tudor, Spain and England were allies.
why did Spain and England’s relationship sour when Elizabeth made England protestant?
(RELIGIOUS RIVALRY)

Answer 10

• Phillip II saw Protestantism as a threat to the authority of the catholic church
• Catholics saw Protestantism as something dangerous that needed to be stamped out
• Many English Protestants saw Spain and catholicism as a threat
• Phillip became involved in plots
• Phillip opposed Elizabeth’s religious settlement

Question 11

Why did nations of Europe become rivals over territory?

Answer 11

• more territory meant more people, wealth and power
• this rivalry often resulted in foreign policy that led to war

Question 12

Why was there a brutal Spanish campaign in the Netherlands under the Duke of Alba?

Answer 12

because many dutch became protestant so the brutal campaign was to restore catholicism there

Question 13

What and when was the council of blood?

Answer 13

The CoB were Spanish Catholics who executed many dutch protestants. It was founded in 1568

Question 14

What was the effect of the Spanish campaign in the Netherlands in Elizabeth’s government?

Answer 14

• Elizabeth’s leading courtiers were protestant and they put pressure on her to help Dutch rebels
• they saw Spain as hostile - a direct threat to English Protestantism and to England itself

Question 15

Why was Elizabeth reluctant to help the Dutch protestant rebels in the Netherlands?

Answer 15

she wanted to avoid anything that could start a war with Spain

Question 16

Instead of directly getting involved in the Netherlands, she tried to apply pressure on the Spanish. How did she do this?

Answer 16

• Indirectly helping Dutch protestants resist the Spanish
• Encouraging English privateers to attack Spanish ships and colonies
• Pursuing friendly relations with France by offering a marriage alliance to the heir of the French throne, the Duke of Alencon
• by encouraging others to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands

Question 17

what was Elizabeth’s intent with pursuing friendly relations with France through a marriage alliance with Duke of Alencon?

Answer 17

• hoped that putting pressure on the Netherlands would alarm Phillip Il enough to give the Dutch their independence back.
• when it didn’t, she used her influence with the Duke of Alencon to encourage him to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands

Question 18

How did Elizabeth’s government decide to secretly help the Dutch protestants resist the Spanish?

Answer 18

• allowed Dutch rebel ships (sea beggars) safe passage in English ports
• it provided financial support to others fighting the Spanish, including volunteers led by John Casimir, a foreign mercenary
• English privateers (like Francis Drake) were encouraged to attack Spanish shipping and colonies in Latin America

Question 19

When and what was the Spanish fury

Answer 19

The spanish fury was where Spanish government in the Netherlands found the war there unaffordable. A lack of funds meant Spanish troops went unpaid, which resulted in the SPANISH FURY when Spanish troops looted Antwerp. This happened in 1576

Question 20

What’s the deal with the Pacification of Ghent?

Answer 20

The violence in Antwerp (the Spanish fury) united all 17 Dutch provinces, Protestant and Catholics, together against Spanish, where they drew up the Pacification of Ghent which demanded :
• all Spanish troops expelled from the Netherlands
• the restoration of political autonomy
• an end to religious persecution

Question 21

How was the pacification of Ghent properly enforced?

Answer 21

• Elizabeth sent a loan of £100,000 to the Dutch rebels and agreed to send an expeditionary force to the Netherlands to help ensure that the Pacification of Ghent was carried
• February 1577: Phillip’s brother, Don Juan arrived in the Netherlands and agreed to all the terms

Question 22

why didn’t Elizabeth plan for peace in the Netherlands fail?

Answer 22

• less than six months after agreeing with terms, Phillip sent a new army to attack the Dutch
• Elizabeth hired a mercenary, John Casimir and financed him to raise an army of 6,000 English and Scottish volunteers to help the Dutch.
- However, Casimir’s forces devasted Dutch Catholic churches, helping to persuade Dutch Catholics to make peace with Spain which strengthened Phillip II’s position in the Netherlands
• the duke of Parma, who had been sent to the Netherlands by Phillip II, was a far more effective military leader than Don Juan and the Spanish soon had the upper hand

Question 23

Even though Elizabeth hired John Casimir to help the Dutch, England and Spain were not officially at war. Why was this?

Answer 23

• the fact that Casimir’s forces were volunteers led by a mercenary meant that Elizabeth was not officially sending an English army to fight the Spanish in her name

• hence they were not officially at war.

Question 24

Why were Privy councillors, like the Earl of Leicester, urgining Elizabeth to intervene in the Netherlands directly?

Answer 24

• in 1578, the situation there was potentially promising enough for a complete Dutch victory
• An independent Netherlands would be a strong, Protestant ally for England against Spain

Question 25

what circumstances in 1584, made England’s situation even more hazardous concerning the Netherlands?

Answer 25

• 10th June 1584 = Duke of Alencon died

• 10th July 1584 = William of Orange assassinated

Question 26

Why was the death of Duke of Alencon a problem?

Answer 26

• he could no longer fight the Spanish in the Netherlands
• although France’s new heir to the throne, Henri of Navarre was a protestant, leading French Catholics formed a catholic League to stop him
• it led to a religious war in France, meaning it was too unstable to be a useful ally to England

Question 27

Why was the death of William of Orange a problem?

Answer 27

William of Orange was the leader of the Dutch Protestant rebels
• it showed how easy it was for a leader like Elizabeth to be assassinated
• Dutch protestants needed a leader and looked to Elizabeth. She did not want this role as she could be seen as trying to overthrow Phillip II
• without a leader, the Dutch rebels could be defeated by Spin, leaving England as Phillip Il’s next target

Question 28

When was the treaty of Joinville signed and who was it signed by?
What did the treaty of Joinville do?

Answer 28

1584 by the French Catholic League - secured Phillip Il’s help against French protestants

Question 29

When did the King of France sign up to the Catholic League’s aim of ridding heresy?

Answer 29

1585

Question 30

What did the treaty of Joinville and the Catholic League effectively mean?

Answer 30

that Catholic France and Spain were now allies against Protestantism - Elizabeth had to take action